Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy Review

I still miss Kyle but this new guy ain't so bad.

About a year-and-a-half ago Raven Software surprised the heck out of us with a little title called Jedi Outcast. It wasn't that Raven had made such a great game; we were used to that already from Elite Force and Soldier of Fortune. What really shocked us was how well they captured the license and designed a really solid game around it. And now that Raven has offered up a sequel, Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, they've managed to strengthen many of the features of the previous game.

So I should just cut and paste my Jedi Outcast review and replace all the "greats" with "phenomenals," right? Well, not quite. While the title does many things better than Jedi Outcast, Jedi Academy nevertheless comes with a few minor problems that bring entirely new frustrations.

One of the biggest changes is that you won't be playing as Kyle Katarn. I understand why Raven and Lucas opted to go with an entirely new character for the series but it's still hard to say goodbye to such an old friend. Still, it's better than a contrivance to get Kyle back to a weaker state to provide a compelling challenge and sense of progress to the game. I'm mollified somewhat by the decision to let players create their own character's appearance here but I can't shake the feeling that, since the character is created according to the player's preference, that we'll be seeing yet another character for Star Wars Jedi Knight: The College Years.

As a new student in the Jedi Academy you'll go on quite a few milk runs at the start. In all, the early levels aren't too much of a challenge and can be passed in the matter of a few hours. It's nice that the game offers a series of fairly short, relatively unconnected missions at the start. It's a great way to get your feet wet and ease you in to the environments and the saber fighting before the challenge level ramps up. You'll visit a surprising range of locations right from the start before settling in for the real work at hand.

That work, by the way, involves a new cult that's trying to siphon up Force power for reasons unknown. We're pretty sure that those reasons are at least somewhat nefarious, but since the point of the game is figuring out who's behind it and what they're up to, we hesitate to say more than that. Suffice it to say that you'll have a group of five missions to choose from after the introductory training is over. You can choose these missions in any order (and even skip the fifth one if you're that anxious to get on with the story) before you're forced to take a mission along the main plot line. Once that's done, you'll have the chance to choose from five more missions before the process repeats itself again. These smaller missions offer a chance to build up extra Force powers and even reveal some small clues to the overall shape of the main story.

But this relatively open mission structure doesn't come without some notable disadvantages. To begin with, the story's simply not as tight this time around. Since the player can now choose from a set of missions, the relationship they each bear to the overall story is less pronounced. This is quite a change of pace from the relentless plot that drove the previous game. Hell, the plot was so good, we didn't even mind the lengthy cutscenes that broke up the action. Here the cutscenes are shorter at least but definitely still lacking the impact of those in the previous game.